Lauren Rousseau 1982-2012

A teacher affects eternity; he or she can never tell where his or her influence stops.

-Henry Adams, historian and teacher (1838-1918)

Lauren Gabrille Rousseau, 30, teacher

(AP) — Lauren Rousseau had spent years working as a substitute teacher and doing other jobs. So she was thrilled when she finally realized her goal this fall to become a full-time teacher at Sandy Hook.

Her mother, Teresa Rousseau, a copy editor at the Danbury News-Times, released a statement Saturday that said state police told them just after midnight that she was among the victims.

« Lauren wanted to be a teacher from before she even went to kindergarten, » she said. « We will miss her terribly and will take comfort knowing that she had achieved that dream. »

Her mother said she was thrilled to get the job.

« It was the best year of her life, » she told the newspaper.

Rousseau has been called gentle, spirited and active. She had planned to see « The Hobbit » with her boyfriend Friday and had baked cupcakes for a party they were to attend afterward. She was born in Danbury, and attended Danbury High, college at the University of Connecticut and graduate school at the University of Bridgeport.

She was a lover of music, dance and theater.

« I’m used to having people die who are older, » her mother said, « not the person whose room is up over the kitchen. »

The principal’s husband had Lauren in his class when she was in Grade 4.

Double tragedy for husband of dead principal as 1994 class photo shows he once taught Lauren Rousseau – a teacher who was also murdered at Sandy Hook

The family of slain Newtown principal Dawn Hochsprung have suffered a double tragedy after it emerged that they were close to another of the victims. George Hochsprung taught Lauren Rousseau when she was in fourth grade and considered her a ‘family friend’, relatives have revealed. He and Dawn liked her so much that they even put in a good word at her school, Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, and got her a job.

Lauren was the same age as one of my sons who had his birthday yesterday.

The N.R.A.’s plan for countering school shootings, coming a week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was met with widespread derision from school administrators, law enforcement officials and politicians, with some critics calling it “delusional” and “paranoid.” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican, said arming schools would not make them safer.